I grab the ragged ends of the tear on her jeans on each side and rip the hole so it’s wider. I’m taking my frustration out on them, so they tear clear down to the bottom of the leg. I hear Bree’s breathy gasp. Hell, I can even feel her warmth brush softly against my hair. Before Bree, I never realized I enjoyed self-torture.
“I liked these jeans,” she says.
“I wasn’t the one jumping out of windows,” I tease.
“You drove me to it,” she confides, and when I look up at her, it feels like my fucking heart freezes. She’s smiling. Her eyes are filled with pleasure and it’s all aimed at me. Her lips are just a couple inches away. The urge to kiss her is so strong, I fucking shake from it.
“You need to learn to control your impulses. That will come with age,” I tell her like a jackass as I put a bandage over her scrapped knee. I have to put distance between us somehow. Immediately, I regret it however, when the light in her eyes dims to a dull twinkle, then nothing.
“I should be getting back. I told Beth and Katie I’d be back this evening to help with the kids while they work on last minute party things,” she says, looking across the room at a bare wall, instead of at me.
“Don’t be like that, Bree.” I take the seat next to her.
“Like what?”
“Close up on me,” I tell her, at the same time kicking myself, because this was what I wanted. I just can’t stand to see that light gone. “I’m only telling you the truth, here.”
“What was that about then?”
“That?”
Her hand waves toward the door. “What we did together? If you’re so hell bent on telling me all the reasons you shouldn’t touch me then what just happened on the side of the road?”
I frown. “Something that shouldn’t have.”
“But it did. I didn’t see you reminding me how young I was then. I didn’t see you calling a halt to it then.” She’s calling me on my shit, but I can’t change the way things are.
“I lost my head. When you toy with a man, there are consequences.”
“You’re a liar. I might be young, but at least I’m honest. You want me. Maybe as much as I want you,” she challenges me to tell her she’s wrong.
“You’re jailbait.”
She counters, “I’m eighteen.”
“You’re a world of trouble, Bree. Even if I ignored your age, being who you are makes anything impossible. Besides, I’m not the kind of man you want.”
“Why impossible? Skull and Torch are family? They’re your brothers.”
“Exactly. If they even thought I was thinking of staking a claim on you they’d cut off my dick and feed it to the buzzards. And baby girl, no offense, but I ain’t risking my dick for any pussy, doesn’t matter how sweet it promises to be.”
“How do you know what kind of man I want?”
“You’re young. Still a dreamer. You want a man with a regular job, a house with a picket fence, and kids. Which is fine, but none of those things are who I am.”
“I bet Skull thought the same thing before Aunt Beth.”
I shake my head. “And that proves I know exactly what you want.”
“Fine. Then how about a deal?”
“A deal?”
“What if you give me more of what we just shared together?”
“I told you just a few of the many reasons why that can’t happen.”
“It can if we obey rules.” She’s seriously thinking hard about this.
“Rules?” I repeat, needing a moment to think.
She winks at me growing bolder. “No one knows but us.”
“You’re awful sure of yourself. What makes you think I’d even agree to this?”
“I might be young and innocent, but even I know when a man is looking at me like he wants to eat me alive.”
“Bree, you’re young. What do you want with me? You could have anyone your own age. Hell, even a bastard my age with better prospects,” I tell her, giving up all pretenses. She wants to talk plain—I’ll give it to her plain.
“I don’t want them. I want you.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know how you make me feel.” She leans closer to me, tempting me to taste those lips.
“That’s just sex. Any man can give you that, sweetness,” I tell her, hating the very idea of it, even as I say it.
“I’ve never wanted it before. Not until I saw you across the room.”
I cup the back of my neck and clear my throat. “And if that doesn’t sound like a dreamer right there.”
“You looked at me too. I know you did. I saw you stand up. Go ahead, Jax. Deny that you want me. I’ll stop if you can tell me that you aren’t dying for more of what we do to each other.”